Beware of Scammers: A Freelancer's Guide to Protecting Yourself in the Gig Economy

On Sunday evening I logged into my Upwork account looking for a job. Upwork is an online site where clients post remote jobs and freelancers with the requisite skills and registered on the platform bid for the job. The client receives the bid and proposal from all the freelancers who applied, then makes their choice on whom they prefer to work with.

On this day I searched for data entry jobs which yielded quite a handful of results, as I was skimming through the jobs posted one particularly aroused my attention so I clicked on it. The job stated that the client had 100 images that needed to be typed into a word document.

The payment was actually what interested me the most because they were willing to part ways with $25 per image, quick math that meant $2500 for the entire project. That was an irresistible offer I couldn’t let pass me, hurriedly I clicked on the job for more details. Part of the requirement was you had to contact the project manager through a telegram link provided.

I headed to telegram and contacted the program manager who went by the handle of Joshua Darna. I started by introducing myself and then pointed out my interest in applying for the job they had posted on Upwork.

The response was swift as she introduced herself as Ms. Dana working for a company called Marine Software Inc. where they were hiring work-from-home employees to handle projects and get paid as remote workers. She then asked me to submit my full name, country of origin, and email address.

After I had submitted my response, she sent a brief description of the company, what it was about, and what it does, which after doing a quick google search matched with what she said. She then proceeded to inform me about the project stating that the 100-page images had to be typed into a word document with a very strict time deadline of three days. The maximum concentration was needed so I had to stop bidding on other projects for the period I was doing the project.

She informed me that it was a history project that needed to be presented at a world conference that would host a lot of world leaders, so the finished product had to be of the highest standard and the best. She reiterated the payment of $25 per image and $2500 for the project in its entirety. The payment was to be made through PayPal, cryptocurrency, Skrill, PAYEER, and direct bank transfer. Since I have a PayPal account the payment methods resonated well with me.

A couple of minutes later I received the project through telegram. She told me to get to them promptly and as soon as I was done, I had to send the word document to the company email address for reviewing and payment would be done immediately.

Now I was in a dilemma, the following day was Monday which was a work day, and the project needed to be submitted by Wednesday, I couldn’t rely on doing the entire project in two evenings. To make it even worse my typing speed is 25 WPM which according to one website was a turtle speed. Am thinking what do I do, I had to get out of work to do the project but how? I chose to go by what most of us have perfected I called in sick and told my manager I thought I was coming down with something because my whole body was aching and feeling generally weak. That is how not to get out of work to do your accomplish your side hustle.

Here I was I copy typing 100 images at a speed of 25 WPM, this was a test of endurance and pushing forward despite the excruciating pain my body was experiencing. For those two days, I slept just 3 hours a day to be able to complete the project. I was fatigued and my body ached from sitting for hours to finish the project. I almost fell ill from pushing my body too hard. It was hurting but I kept motivating myself with the end product of being $2500 richer. This amount would solve a lot of my immediate problems which I was drowning in. By Wednesday morning I had finished the project and emailed it, now I had to face the other monster of going to work. My calling in sick had turned into reality, I was suffering from overworking my body to such extreme ends.

That evening couldn’t come fast enough, I got out of work and went home had a long bath and nice dinner then relaxed on the couch. I took my phone the messaged the project manager informing them of my submission which I had done in the morning. She requested a screenshot of the mail I had sent. She was impressed by my work and requested I send my account details for payment.

Finally, payday was here, and the thought of receiving my due made me jump from my seat to my laptop to mail my PayPal account details. Shortly an email came through; ”Total Payment: $2550, Status: Payment pending because you have not linked your account to our company payment server (CITI Bank Payment System). You are required to submit the following:

1. Photo sample
2. Phone number
3. Refundable Linking Fee $50

That kind of dampened my excitement a bit, I was thinking $50 was all that stood between me and my hard-earned reward. I texted the project manager for assistance on how to pay the linking fee, she replied asking if I had the money in my account then I should make the deposit immediately so that the funds would reflect in my account.

My account had only $30 so I needed to top up $20 to make the linking fee deposit. What do I do, made several calls borrowing my deficit and promising to pay promptly and some interest in return, after all the linking fee was refundable and almost $2500 richer. That took several calls to fill up the shortfall.

Now I was confident enough to ask for the account details for sending the fee. She sent me a bank account number to wire the fee. Did that and forwarded the confirmation text from the bank to her. She requested a few minutes to check on the company system and then get back to me. 10 minutes of impatient waiting felt like torture. She texted back saying the fee had been confirmed by the finance department but there was still one final issue, I had to buy an employee identification card ID so that my details would be saved in the company system to enable the smooth running of future transactions.

If you have started smelling something fishy, good for you because I wasn’t. She told me the ID card was only $150. Am already in $20 debt and I still needed $150 more. I asked her for a day to raise the money for the card. The following day was spent putting together the little cash I received from different people from colleagues to friends to family members. By evening I had a sum of the required funds. I texted her informing her that I had the money for the ID card. She sent a different account number to transfer the funds which I did without hesitation then forwarded the confirmation text as usual.

Silence and an erased conversation were what followed. Trying the link she had put up on Upwork yielded no results, my whole body started sweating, my heart was throbbing, my tongue dried up and stuck to the roof of my mouth, and the thought of being scammed was unbearable.

Tears rolled freely, felt weak at the knees that horrible feeling I cannot wish on my worst enemy. All the effort I had put into the project went down the drain and adding insult to injury my $200 went with the winds and am left with a debt to facilitate.

May my experience be a lesson for freelancers out there to stay safe, when the deal sounds too good always think thrice and always work on a platform that has your interest and can safeguard you from the scammers out there.